Meditation on the Studio Wall
During the 25 minutes that the camera exposed its film to a 16″ X 20″ section of the studio wall , I would sit, open my eyes and meditate on that section of the wall for the same length of time.
During the 25 minutes that the camera exposed its film to a 16″ X 20″ section of the studio wall , I would sit, open my eyes and meditate on that section of the wall for the same length of time.
“We face the imperative to understand anew today what it might mean for photography to ‘move beyond representation’.” (Hito Steyerl from ‘Documentary Uncertainty’)
Scanning through the Ikebana section of the university library I came upon this book: Rikka: The Soul of Japanese Flower Arrangement by Fugiwara Yuchiku The book speaks of the origins…
“…contrary to the opinion of previous scholarship, the second half of Rosso’s career was dedicated to the achievement of his artistic goals through the creative medium of photography.” Francesco Bacci
Installation in progress.
Saturday October 17. Reciprocity: The large camera and the studio wall, is one of three ‘open studio’ events that Trudi Lynn Smith and I staged in order to invite dialogue around a project that we had been working on involving photography and the studio space at 562 Fisgard Street.
It was an amazing process involving a strange gelatinous concoction of silver nitrate and other chemicals heated in a crock pot in the darkroom to be later cooled and then squeezed through a kitchen ‘ricer’ and then reheated. The liquid was then carefully poured onto the surface of a very clean pieces of glass put into the back of the 4″ X5 camera and exposed.